The Indictments Begin

John Ehrlichman, once the chief White House adviser on all domestic affairs, has steadfastly denied knowing in advance of the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. A county grand jury in Los Angeles last week decided otherwise. It indicted Ehrlichman and three other former White House aides--Egil Krogh, David Young and G. Gordon Liddy--for the plebeian crime of burglary. Ehrlichman was also charged with perjury.

Not Traceable. In a total of eight days of hearings, the grand jury took testimony from 30 witnesses, including four who had participated in the break-in but had been granted immunity: E. Howard Hunt, Bernard Barker, Eugenio Martinez and Felipe de Diego. The jury reportedly monitored the Senate Watergate hearings arid then replayed tapes of Ehrlichman's testimony to check for discrepancies. His indictment for burglary was based partly on three White House memorandums, especially a memo from Young and Krogh on Aug. 11, 1971, in which Ehrlichman approved a "covert operation" to procure the psychiatrist's files on Ellsberg. Along with his initial, Ehrlichman had jotted down: "If done under your assurance that it is not traceable."

Ehrlichman contended that he did not have burglary in mind when he gave his O.K.: he was thinking of persuading a doctor or nurse to get the Ellsberg psychiatric files, or of having Liddy's team of White House "plumbers" pose as investigators who were entitled to see the reports. Other testimony apparently also implicated Ehrlichman. Young, who invoked the Fifth Amendment before the Los Angeles grand jury, had reportedly told a federal grand jury in Washington as well as the staff of the Senate Watergate committee that Ehrlichman definitely had advance knowledge of the Ellsberg breakin.

Bail was set at a token $500 for the four former White House aides. As a courtesy, arrest warrants were delayed for a week to give them all time to get to Los Angeles. But they did not need the delay. Krogh surrendered almost immediately, pleaded not guilty and professed "some real regrets over what has taken place in terms of injuring innocent persons." Then came Young, then Ehrlichman, more tanned and thinner than he used to be. He pleaded not guilty and was taken off for fingerprinting and mug shots. Liddy, who is serving a sentence of up to 20 years for the Watergate breakin, will have to stand trial once again in Los Angeles. If convicted, each man could receive a five-year-to-life sentence for first degree burglary, which is burglary committed at night. Ehrlichman could also be given a one-to-14-year jail term for perjury.

Grounds for Silence. The indictments were greeted with some dismay by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in Washington. There are so many separate investigations of Watergate and related affairs that they are bound to conflict. Cox had reportedly asked the grand jury to put off the indictments for a week so that Ehrlichman could be brought to Washington to testify further on Watergate, the ITT scandal, and probably on the Ellsberg break-in and other plumbers' activities. Now that he has been indicted, Ehrlichman has grounds for keeping silent, at least in regard to the Ellsberg burglary case. His attorneys, in fact, asked the federal district court in Washington to quash the subpoena; testifying for a fourth time, they maintained, would be "unreasonable and oppressive." Cox, on the other hand, argued that Ehrlichman has testified only briefly in his past appearances. He feels that Ehrlichman knows too much to be silenced now.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.